News Corp

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT NEWS CORP - PAGE 4

CHICAGO: Rupert Murdoch said News Corp. may form a new company with partners to allow the media giant to enter the U.S. high-speed Internet market, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. "Here (in the United States), we don't know," Murdoch told the newspaper. "We may be forming a company with partners to build something out here that would give you broadband. " News Corp., which controls top U.S. satellite TV service DirecTV Group Inc, does not currently offer high-speed Internet service.

NEW YORK: News Corp promoted James Murdoch to run the media company's operations in Europe and Asia, putting him in line to succeed his father, Rupert Murdoch. James Murdoch will step down as chief executive officer of British Sky Broadcasting Group, UK's biggest pay-TV provider, and rejoin the board at New York-based News Corp, the companies said in separate statements. Jeremy Darroch, BSkyB's chief financial officer, was named CEO. In his new role, James Murdoch, 34, will oversee Asian broadcaster Star Group, UK newspaper unit News International and Sky Italia.

LOS ANGELES: Jonathan Miller, a former chief executive of AOL and once considered a potential CEO at Yahoo Inc., will soon be appointed head of digital strategy for News Corp., according to a person familiar with the matter. Miller, 51, was eyed last year as a replacement for Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, before Time Warner Inc.'s AOL invoked a noncompete clause that blocked the move. Miller will be based in New York and drive News Corp.'s digital strategy across assets such as the MySpace social network, The Wall Street Journal, Fox networks, the 20th Century Fox movie studio, and the Hulu video site, which News Corp.

MUMBAI: Australia-based Macquarie Bank has acquired about 6.6% in Indian entertainment company, UTV Software Communications, over the past month, and is believed to be acting on behalf of the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp. Sources said Macquarie Bank will probably increase its current holding of 6.6% to 14.99% on behalf of News Corp, before offloading it to the news and entertainment company. UTV Software Communications trading volume has risen by over 30% in the last month, accompanied by massive surge in trading volumes over the last four days.

NEW DELHI: News Corp has made an open offer to buy 20% stake at Rs 232 per share in Hughes Software Systems (HSS), the Indian software arm of US-based Hughes Electronics. In April, General Motors split Hughes and sold 34% stake in HEC to Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp. HSS stock did not react to the move and was up by less than 1% at Rs 254.20 on the BSE. The offer is to acquire up to 67,34,265 fully paid-up shares of Rs 5 each representing 20% of the paid-up share capital of Hughes Software.

NEW DELHI: News Corp has made an open offer to buy 20% stake at Rs 232 per share in Hughes Software Systems (HSS), the Indian software arm of US-based Hughes Electronics. In April, General Motors split Hughes and sold 34% stake in HEC to Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp. HSS stock did not react to the move and was up by less than 1% at Rs 254.20 on the BSE. The offer is to acquire up to 67,34,265 fully paid-up shares of Rs 5 each representing 20% of the paid-up share capital of Hughes Software.

SYDNEY: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has sold its entire 7.5% stake in rival Australian company Fairfax Media for around A$380 million (US$312 million), both companies said Monday. Reasons for the sale weren't given, but it comes less than a week after Murdoch launched a US$5 billion (e3.7 billion) bid for Down Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, in an effort to expand his global media empire in the United States. Fairfax chairman Ron Walker said News had informed the company that it had sold its 75 million shares at A$5.07-a-share.

LOS ANGELES: Facing a firestorm of criticism, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has scrapped a new book and TV interview in which OJ Simpson offered a hypothetical account of how he would have killed his ex-wife and her friend. In a dramatic reversal days after his News Corp announced plans for the book and a Fox television special, Murdoch, the News Corp chairman, said in a statement he decided "this was an ill-considered project" and apologised for any harm caused.

NEW YORK | LOS ANGELES| LONDON: News Corp, the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch , said it plans to split into two publicly-traded entities after its board approved the move separating publishing assets from entertainment businesses. The publishing business consists of newspapers in the US, the UK and Australia, as well as book, education and marketing assets, according to a statement from the company on Thursday. The media and entertainment company includes film and TV assets . Murdoch will be chairman of both companies and chief executive officer of the media business when the deal is completed in about 12 months.

NEW YORK: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has reached a tentative agreement to buy Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co, the Journal reported on its Web site late Monday. The deal is for the original $5 billion (euro3.63 billion) price that Murdoch had offered and will be put to the full Dow Jones board Tuesday for its approval, the Journal said, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation. The deal would still need approval from Dow Jones' controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family, which has been divided on a sale to News Corp because of concerns over whether the Journal would maintain its editorial independence.